A San Francisco Superior Court commissioner has granted the San Francisco Bay Guardian's request to place a lien on the Weekly's holding company and the firm's interests in the Village Voice Media chain, as the Guardian attempts to collect the millions of dollars it was awarded in 2008's predatory-pricing trial. The Guardian's lawyer says the lien would enable it to seek another court order allowing it to sell off any of the VVM papers -- including SF Weekly - or simply take money from them to pay the judgment. But the Weekly's lawyer says the ruling is much narrower, and doesn't allow the Guardian to go after any of VVM's assets. Meanwhile, the Weekly continues its appeal of the initial ruling.
As we've noted recently, the San Francisco Bay Guardian has been going after the assets of SF Weekly as it tries to collect the millions of dollars it was awarded in 2008's predatory-pricing trial against the Weekly and parent company Village Voice Media. This week, the Guardian upped the ante, asking a court for permission to seize all property belonging not just to the Weekly but to all of VVM. An attorney for the Guardian tells the San Francisco Chronicle that it has been tough collecting anything since SF Weekly doesn't actually have much property, which is why they are now going after the rest of the company. But VVM continues to maintain it doesn't owe the Guardian anything until it has fully exhausted its appeals. The ruling on this could come down as early as today. READ MORE from The Stranger.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that it was granted its motion to intercept the income of the SF Weekly in a court hearing last week. The Guardian says it will seize the rent that the SF Weekly's subtenant pays to the paper. This comes on the heels of the Guardian's recent seizure and auction of two vehicles owned by the Weekly, and it is all part of the Guardian's attempt to collect the multi-million-dollar judgment it was awarded in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and its parent company New Times, now known as Village Voice Media. VVM maintains that it won't owe the Guardian any money until its appeals are completed.
Village Voice Media says that revenues from its Voice Local Network have doubled month-over-month since the network's launch in June, while the number of advertisers has more than quadrupled. In addition, VVM reports that the network has been bringing in high CPM rates across the board, averaging $10 gross CPMs and higher.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian last week auctioned off two vehicles owned by the SF Weekly as it tries to collect the multi-million-dollar judgment it was awarded in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and its parent company New Times, now known as Village Voice Media. The Guardian, which seized the vehicles in November, says the move "prove[s] wrong the predictions of New Times executives that the Guardian would never collect a cent on its judgment." VVM maintains that it won't owe the Guardian any money until its appeals are completed.
Toke of the Town is the latest national blog property launched by Village Voice Media, joining titles like Heartless Doll, Joystick Division and True Crime Report.
Last week, the USC Annenberg web publication Neon Tommy ran a lengthy piece on the future of the Weekly as new editor Drex Heikes settles in. After correcting a few factual errors, Weekly news blogger Dennis Romero turns his focus to the larger context of the piece -- the changes at the paper since it came under control of Village Voice Media in 2006. "What's seen as a reduction of the editorial department is also a changing of the guard," he writes. "While some liberals and the ex-Weekly writers who catered to them lament the loss of the paper's crusty, bell-bottom voice, we'd argue that the future here is bright -- and digital."
The South Florida alt-weekly ran a lengthy cover story this week on the problems facing South Florida's newspapers, and decided that it would only be fair to report on its own struggles as well. Reporter Lisa Rab says that the New Times newsroom staff has shrunk by four (to 13) and its circulation has dropped from around 80,000 to 54,500 over "the past couple of years." She also talks to Village Voice Media president and chief operating officer Scott Tobias, who says there are no plans afoot to make the paper online-only, to sell it or to merge its operations with its sister paper to the south, Miami New Times.
Drex Heikes, the veteran journalist who came to the Weekly from the Las Vegas Sun this summer, tells the USC Annenberg publication Neon Tommy that he was brought in specifically to beef up the paper's reporting, and that's exactly what he will do. "We're pushing things that are very deeply reported," he says. "We want good, hard-nosed investigative work." Heikes acknowledges that the Weekly has seen some tough times in the past few years, but says he remains confident in the paper's future, in part because he's been told by VVM executive editor Michael Lacey that there won't be any more newsroom contractions (as the story notes, the Weekly is actually hiring again). "I would say, God willing, the place is going to grow and we can be judged on where we are a year from now or two years from now," Heikes says. NOTE: The Weekly points out that the Neon Tommy story has an as-of-yet uncorrected error -- the paper has five full-time editors, not three.
Scott Foundas has been named the new associate program director of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he will work on series and event programs, including the New York Film Festival. "Scott's writing is an exhilarating dialogue with artists and audiences alike," society executive director Mara Manus tells Variety. "It is this vibrancy, along with Scott's deep film knowledge, that will contribute greatly to our growing organization, ensuring we continue to offer a vital place of serious film culture." IndieWire's Anne Thompson says Foundas' move is another nail in the coffin for the "dying art" of film criticism. "As one of the best critics working today, Foundas should be anticipating a long and happy career," she writes. "He's giving it up to program movies. This should not happen."
- Go to the previous page
- 1
- …
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- …
- 63
- Go to the next page
